


A Fire That Consumes

by MyWordsMyChoice



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Brothers, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-05-03 03:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14559495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyWordsMyChoice/pseuds/MyWordsMyChoice
Summary: A series of drabbles focusing on the Fire Nation Royal Family.Chapter 6: Sifu himself could not possibly beg Agni to guide Ozai's training more than the gardeners did.





	1. Birth

The first thing Iroh remembers about his brother’s birth is that he would have perfected tenth kata sooner had Ozai not arrived screaming. The sound shatters his focus, and his fire lash almost ignites the hem of Sifu Osamu’s robe. Forget leniency; Sifu’s reprimand only ceases when Lo and Li come to collect him.

Still, his excitement grows with every step towards his mother’s chambers, and when his baby brother is placed in his arms, he forgets all about the rankling injustice. Ozai grips onto his finger when he whispers hello, and Iroh feels he could forgive him absolutely anything.


	2. First Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iroh can never pinpoint the moment Ozai fell from father's affections.

An hour for family each day, mother says after Ozai’s birth, no matter what. Father rarely attends, so only Ilah and Iroh bear witness to most of Ozai’s firsts. His first smile, first laugh, even first words are precious secrets shared between them. Father does see Ozai’s first steps, rewards them with the smile Iroh only sees when he has excelled. 

He can never pinpoint the moment his brother fell from father’s affections, but once Ozai is big enough to trail him around the palace, he realises why. Ozai is five years old, and they haven’t seen his first flames.


	3. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two weeks for Iroh to wear the crown. Two weeks for Ilah work a miracle.

Ilah watches Azulon’s carriage departing just before sunrise. Two weeks to tour the colonies. Two weeks for Iroh to wear the crown. Two weeks to work a miracle on her second son. 

She waits until her breath alights in her lungs, then shakes Ozai awake.

“Up!” She throws his training robe at him. “You will learn your forms with me each morning.”

Ozai scowls. “I’m not a bender.”

Ilah cuffs him about the ear. “You are a prince of the Fire Nation. The forms belong to you as much as any bender. Get up! I will not tell you again!”


	4. First Flames - Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pride and folly of an ageing woman, the palace whispered. The shame of producing a non-bending son.

Another day, another whisper. Iroh faced the courtier across the table and parroted the lie he’d been telling since assuming the regency.  
  
“My lady mother’s reasons are her own, and I have no objection. Do not waste my time with this nonsense again.”  
  
The pride and folly of an ageing woman, the palace whispered. The shame of producing a non-bending son. A mere breath away from sedition and yet... Iroh sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Ozai still had not produced so much as a spark. Ilah still persisted in the absolute _futility_ of drilling him day after day after day, as mercilessly as she would one of her pupils.  
  
Even that was another matter to be attended to. When was Lady Ilah going to return as their Sifu, they wanted to know. Or, more likely, when was Jeong Jeong going to leave...  
  
The door creaked open. He set his pen down with icy calmness and looked up, ready to familiarise his visitor with the courtesy of knocking. There stood Ozai in his ragged training robe.  
  
“Brother?”  
  
“Look at this.”  
  
Ozai held out his hands, palms upward, and two small flames spat and crackled their way to freedom.


	5. First Flames - Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was not a victory to be woven into the fabric of history, but it is hers.

Ilah smiles as she passes Iroh’s office, swift enough to be able to deny having heard her sons whooping and yelling. It is, after all, behaviour unbefitting of royalty, remnants of the children they could no longer be.  
  
Firebending had not come naturally to Ozai. His compatriots would never be the elite warriors sent forth before him, but it mattered not when Iroh burned so brightly.  
  
No, it may not have come naturally but it _came_. She alone had brought forth Ozai’s flames. It was not a victory to be woven into the fabric of history, but it is _hers._


	6. Proverbs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sifu himself could not possibly beg Agni to guide Ozai's training more than the gardeners did.

Scorched flower heads crumbled under Iroh’s weary tread into the garden, innocent victims of _didi’s_ slow progress. Sifu himself could not possibly beg Agni to guide Ozai’s training more than the gardeners did.

The turtleducks are screaming in panic when he reaches the pond, silly things, swimming in all directions to avoid Ozai’s fire lashes. Iroh clapped an iron hand on his shoulder.

“That’s enough, _didi_. There’s no honour in attacking the defenceless. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.”

“What happened to ‘speed is the mother of good fortune’?!” Ozai snapped.

Iroh grinned.

“You DO listen to my proverbs!”


End file.
